"Downhill Racer" one of Gene Hackman's best efforts

Films/DVD Asylum

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saw it last night on the Independent Film Channel (because Netflix hasn't sent me a DVD in TWO WEEKS!)
my goodness but that was a good print they showed. It looked brand new! and I'd forgotten how good a film this is: more like a documentary than a movie. Has to be one of the best sports films ever made, with Gene Hackman playing the coach--he's so good you can't tell he's acting. The casting is perfect. The film is dated by today's sports/celebrity standards, you young people (under 40) won't understand it at all. They rib the Olympic sports coverage so well and so personally that I'm amazed they weren't sued! Brings back memories of Austria in the '64 Winter Games. Ah, but I was so much older then...
For you skiiers who can't remember when alpine competition was a high-risk sport, take note of how many safety gates there aren't. Check out the start "hut"--the athletes wait their turn on top of the Alps in the bitter wind--their muscles freezing solid. You have no idea what it means to have a low seed in those conditions. When you caught an edge back then you were as good as dead. Those poles marking the turn gates were bamboo. If you broke one they'd shatter like a glass knife--they didn't "break-away" like today's plastic gates do. Those things go right through you, and yes, it used to happen all too much. And check out those "pardon the expression" bindings and 220+ cm DH skis! I've skied them: the Head DH pro (the red ones are the Jean Claude Killy edition)with the black Lange Competition boots and Marker MXXXX(Give me a Break) Racing binding. Imagine you're a helicopter and you have quarter mile tempered steel ribbon rail taken from a section of the New York Central railroad tracks bolted just above the ankles...that's about how it feels when you fall. And if you fall at speed, well, ever twist the stem off of an apple? That's how your knee looks. Wanna know why I had to quit racing? Ouch.
Has a not-Hollywood ending that lingers like a Grand Crux vintage claret.
Very Highly Recommended, no matter how many times you've seen it before.

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Topic - "Downhill Racer" one of Gene Hackman's best efforts - petew 15:28:04 01/22/02 (4)

Re: "Downhill Racer" one of Gene Hackman's best efforts - Victor Khomenko 17:54:00 01/22/02 (3)

Re: "Downhill Racer" one of Gene Hackman's best efforts - petew 20:00:09 01/23/02 (2)

treebanger - late 12:38:59 01/26/02 (0)

Wow! - edta 18:17:52 01/25/02 (0)

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